Curious Mind And Dancing Feet (a Book About Adhd)

By (author) González, Melinda; Illustrated by Videlo, Amélie
Short description/annotation:
In Curious Mind and Dancing Feet, we meet a young Puerto Rican Muslim girl with ADHD. She explains what life is like from her perspective—vibrant, exciting, colorful, and sometimes overwhelming. We accompany her as her attention follows her interests, and as her enthusiasm occasionally puzzles others. She shows us how breathing helps her feel peaceful and calm—and proud of her ADHD.
Description:

A young girl with ADHD celebrates what makes her who she is

In Curious Mind and Dancing Feet, a young girl explains what it’s like to live with ADHD. Sometimes her mind wants to wander, and she often gets the wiggles. But when it comes to bugs, she’s laser focused. People don’t understand why she fills her pockets with bug-friendly snacks, and they don’t have to. The important thing is, her Mami, Abuelita, and friends understand, and they help her embrace her ADHD when she starts to feel jumbled up. With ADHD, life is complicated—and full of joy and wonder.

• Offers an honest portrayal of life with ADHD, including challenges and strengths
• Celebrates disability joy and offers an empowering self-representation for disabled kids
• Helps children develop empathy and understanding with first-person storytelling from a child’s perspective
• Centers disabled voices by drawing on the author’s experience with ADHD
• Features a Puerto Rican and Muslim girl as the main character

The Disability Books for Kids series explores visible and invisible disability in the first person, as seen through the eyes of children and written from firsthand experience. The series builds allyship, challenges ableism, and celebrates difference, empowering and educating all readers. Each book includes an author’s note to the reader.

Biographical note:

Dr. Melinda González is a poet, spoken word artist, storyteller, anthropologist, and educator of Afro-Indigenous/Puerto Rican descent. Curious Mind and Dancing Feet is her debut as a children’s author. She has performed poetry internationally under the pen name La Poeta Guerrera. As a socio-cultural anthropologist specializing in environmental anthropology, Melinda’s work maps how disaster is differentially distributed across race, class, and gender. She brings decolonial and Indigenous research methods to environmental justice studies. She has facilitated creative writing and academic workshops as tools to resist colonial repression and to support poets, writers, and scholars in finding and strengthening their authentic voices throughout their academic and creative journeys. Her poetry and writing have appeared in both academic and literary journals and on the stage. Melinda believes in the transformative power of storytelling to imagine new futures and nurture hope across generations.

Amélie Videlo is a French/Mauritian illustrator based in the UK. Family and nostalgia from her childhood inspire her the most. She loves making pictures full of rich flora and playful characters with mediums such as gouache, acrylic, crayons, and digital painting.